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   O'FALLON, Ill. (AP) - An Illinois Army National Guard veteran and former sports journalist says he's running for a southern Illinois congressional seat.

   The Belleville News-Democrat reports that Republican Doug Bucshon is seeking the 12th Congressional District seat held by Bill Enyart, a Democrat who was elected to his first term last November.

   A 20-year veteran of the state's National Guard, Bucshon has never held political office. Since retiring from active duty, he has covered University of Illinois basketball and football.

   The 12th District stretches from the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis to the state's southernmost tip.

   Enyart succeeded Democrat Jerry Costello, who retired after more than two decades in office.

   SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The Illinois Senate has again approved a plan to address so-called Smart Grid technology over the objection of Gov. Pat Quinn.

   Senators voted 44-11 Tuesday to override Quinn's veto earlier this month. Quinn claimed the bill undermined oversight and would force automatic rate hikes.

   Senate President John Cullerton disputed those claims. A three-fifths majority was needed. It now heads to the House.

   ComEd pushed the bill as a way to clarify 2011 legislation allowing utilities to raise rates to fund a high-tech system. But executing it has been tricky.

   The Illinois Commerce Commission and ComEd disagreed over implementation. ComEd filed a court appeal over technical matters and faces a class-action lawsuit over installation delays.

   The proposal clarifies some of those issues and hastens installation.

   Dozens of St. Charles residents are homeless after their apartments flooded during Monday night's heavy rainfall.  

   Residents at the Riverview Lane Apartments spent Tuesday cleaning up and trying to salvage what they could.  But single mom Jamie Roa told Fox 2 News that losing most of her possessions isn't the hardest part of her ordeal.  It's not having a home for her two daughters.

   "My kids are crying to me, 'Mommy, I want to come home.  Please come get me.  Please come get me.'  And I can't go and get them," she said.  "Because I don't have a home to bring them home to."

   This isn't the first time the apartments have flooded. Recently, property owner, Sheila Stumps installed new storm drains to take rain run off water away from the building, but she and residents told Fox 2 News that the city sewers keep backing up.

   To make matters worse, some residents say they've been denied flood insurance because their building sits on a flood plain.  Other residents say there's nothing in their leases to indicate the risk of flooding.

   Stump insists that she informs everyone of the risk verbally.

   Stumps says she’ll get the tenants back into their homes as soon as possible, but admits that it will take time.